Hi I’m a junior in high school and I am trying to decide on what classes to take my senior year. I plan on studying business in college(hopefully finance) and my number 1 school is NYU Stern. I am trying to decide between Calc or Stat for my senior year. I was just wondering if not taking Ap Calc will put me at a disadvantage for top business schools? I also have the option to take Calc over the summer at a CC. If I did this, would colleges frown down upon the fact that I took it at a CC instead of at my high school? (My high school is one of the top in my state) The credit for calc would not transfer to my high school and I am really unfamiliar with how I would show colleges that I completed Calc.
The reason I am asking this is because I am appealing to get into AP Calc and there is a chance I will not make it.
Please let me know what you think, and any advice is greatly appreciated!
Why wouldn’t your Calc credits transfer? And even if you can still attach that transcript of that grade to your college apps. Calc is essential but if you want to do business I’d also says stats is pretty important. Try to do both.
@brendauo101 it would not transfer because if the class is offered at my highschool, they don’t allow you to take it at a community college and earn credit for it (AP Classes). So i can attach my transcript for that grade to my college apps and it will be viewed as if I took it at my highschool?
Also, I was thinking of doing Computer science and Calcuclus. I would do Calculus and Stat, but i have heard it is decently hard. Is it much harder than AP CS or AP Stats and AP CS similar?
Talk to your guidance counselor. See if they have dual enrollment with the CC.
Otherwise it is better to make sure that colleges see you have taken AP Calc.
I agree that you should talk to your Guidance Counselor. If you don’t get into AP Calc, then your decision is made – take AP Stat. If you have the choice, I think colleges would prefer AP Calc.
If you don’t take AP Calc would you take a lower level (maybe honors but not AP) Calc?
And I wouldn’t worry about if the credit transfers to the HS – it won’t matter . You would put the class on your application and you would need to send a transcript from the CC to the colleges you apply to if you take a class there.
@happy1@booper so Community college calculus would not look as good as AP Calculus right? And if I had to choose between College Prep Calculus and Community college calculus, then community college calc would look better?
@stvika yeah I have heard that from many people say that, but it seems to be pretty difficult at my school. Haha out of say 60 kids that are taking it, maybe 5-10 are white and 50 are asian in a predominately white school. If that says anything haha
@SternBusiness Definitely stats, it’s #1 Easier than calculus, and #2 Highly applicable throughout your entire lifetime. Calc AB, for lack of a better phrase, doesn’t teach you jackshit. Obviously top schools like NYU Stern do not like it if you have not taken Calculus, but if you plan on taking Calc anyways, challenge yourself and take BC
I’m not familiar with AP Calculus AB but assuming it’s like IB Mathematics HL advanced calculus option, it’s going to be fun as hell if you like math. Calculus is so sweet that I sometimes spend hours fantasizing about the really cool real world things I can do the calculus. It’s just a beautiful subject and I don’t even want to study math.
You SHOULD do AP Calc BC especially if you want to get into a school like Stern. If the credit from the CC won’t transfer over to your high school, it’s futile to even consider the CC course. I wouldn’t say that AP Stats is an easy AP but it’s considered a “light AP”.
AP calculus AB approximates college calculus 1, though at a slower pace.
AP calculus BC approximates college calculus 1 and 2 (or just calculus 2 if it starts where AB ends at your high school).
If your community college offers calculus 1 and 2 courses that are accepted as such by your target universities, than they should be equal or better than the AP courses.
@TheDidactic But doesn’t community college calculus 1 look better than just a CP (college prep) calculus at my highschool? The reason, I don’t want to take AP Calc is because I go to a really, really competitive highschool and I am scared that I could do bad honestly haha. I don’t know what to do.
How are you going to succeed in finance if you don’t have the confidence to take AP Calc AB.
Calculus is critical to understanding advanced finance and portfolio optimization. You need to want it and to own it! Do your best and if you don’t get a 5, then take Calc 1 at Stern and really master it.
If your school offers BC, that will filter out the best math students. If your school is one of the top in the state, I’m sure it offers BC. AB is generally easier than Honors Precalc. I think if you want to do Stern for finance, at a minimum you should do AP Calculus AB.
@ClassicRockerDad Yeah I understand what your saying and everything you said is true. However, I could just take Calc over the summer at a community college. Do you think this would look just as good? My school offers BC, but only very math inclined students take it. The other issue is that I signed up for a lot of AP classes, (Bio,Italian,Microeconomics,Stat, Comp Sci) I could get rid of Comp sci and put Calc in, but that may push my workload over. Do you think there is a large difference in how schools perceive AP Calc vs Community college calc 1?
@SternBusiness You said yourself that it wouldn’t transfer over as credit to your high school so technically your high school would not even acknowledge you TOOK calculus, plus there is a minute chance that Stern would even accept it from your local CC. For big, prestigious unis, AP is the way to go to transfer credit. Not all schools accept local CC credit because they have no idea how the class is and how the CC is. Now your state school might accept that but don’t expect NYU Stern to.
Your lack of confidence is really alarming and I don’t know why you assume it would be “easier” at a CC. If you’re that uncomfortable with taking AP Calculus (whether it’s AB or BC), you should take a second look at your desired major and career goals.
NYU Stern has its own calculus requirements. Looks like (for AP scores) AB does not give any advanced placement beyond calculus 1 (although it may give exemption from other math placement exams to be eligible to take calculus 1); a 4 or higher on BC is needed to get advanced placement to a higher level math course. In general, at least one math course must be taken at NYU for Stern requirements, although it may be a more advanced one than calculus 1 if you have appropriate AP credit or completion of a college calculus course taken elsewhere giving you advanced placement: http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/uc/newstudent/freshmen.cfm?doc_id=7289&empower_nav=1
Other schools may have different policies.
A community college calculus 1 course during the summer may be harder than you think. A college calculus 1 course during a regular semester covers material at a faster pace than high school calculus AB, and a summer session is about half as long as a regular semester, so the college course in the summer moves twice as fast as a college course in a regular semester.